Dr Janny de Jong Professor by special appointment of Europe-East Asia Relations with a focus on Japan

03 October 2014

Dr Janny de Jong

On 15 October Dr Janny de Jong will become Professor by special appointment of Europe-East Asia Relations with a focus on Japan via the Groningen University Fund.

The chair aims to contribute to teaching and research in the field of the relationships between Europe and East Asia, with a particular focus on Japan. The dynamic political and economic developments in East Asia after the Second World War have attracted a lot of attention internationally. The world was baffled first by the rapid rise of Japan, followed by the fast economic growth of ‘Newly Industrialized Economies’ such as South Korea and the swift emergence of the People’s Republic of China.

Japan was, and still is, one of the region’s leading countries in political, economic and cultural terms. It is therefore very important to pay attention to the role and importance of Japan in academic teaching and research.

East Asia is one of the University of Groningen’s focus areas. The University has had a Center for Japan Studies since 2000, and in 2013 the Centre for East Asian Studies was founded. The Faculty of Arts offers a Minor in Non-Western Studies, which has a specialization in East Asia, in particular Japan. In addition, a new specialization in East Asian Studies within the Master’s degree programme in International Relations was introduced in 2014.

In 2002, the University of Groningen signed a strategic partnership agreement with the University of Osaka, which housed its European Center for Academic Initiatives in Groningen. Within the framework of the Dutch Studies Center Osaka-Groningen a course unit entitled ‘Gateway to Europe: contemporary Dutch studies’ has been taught in Osaka since 2012.

Janny de Jong studied History at the University of Groningen and gained her PhD at the same university, where she currently works as Associate Professor of History of Government & Politics in Modern Times. In addition, De Jong is Director of Studies of the Master’s degree programme in East Asian Studies and of the Erasmus Mundus Master’s degree programme in Euroculture: Europe in the Wider World, Director of the Center for Japanese Studies and Academic Coordinator/Director of the Dutch Studies Center Osaka-Groningen.

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